Reading Time: < 1 minute On Tuesday March 19th, I presented a 20-minute session on backing up and restoring virtual Domain Controllers as part of the Veeam User Group Netherlands Meetup. My goal was to offer four tips and tricks to get in to a zen state as an Active Directory admin when worrying about backing up and restoring virtual Domain Controllers. Linking from 38m04 onward in this video, you'll find Dutch explanations on: How backups are the only solution to many Active Directory challenges (from 38m04) How to check if backups are properly made on virtual Domain Controllers (from 47 ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Entra ID, previously known as Azure AD is Microsoft's Identity Management-as-a-Service solution, offering seamless access, easy collaboration, efficiency in IT processes and improved security and compliance. In its Release Notes for Entra ID and through the Microsoft 365 Message Center, Microsoft communicated the following planned, new and changed functionality for Entra ID for March 2024:   What's Planned Conditional Access location condition is moving up Starting mid-April 2024, the Conditional Access Locations condition is moving up. Locations will be ..read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Since the start of this week, several of my Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 installations are reporting an error. I decided to address these errors.   The situation I'm using Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 as a means to create backups of data in Microsoft 365 services (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business) to a backup repository on Azure storage. If anything goes wrong, I can restore data granularly. In the organizations, no Public Folders are in use in Exchange Online. After upgrading to the latest version earlier this year, these setups have ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Even though Microsoft’s Identity focus moves towards the cloud, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 still receive updates to improve the experiences and security of Microsoft’s on-premises powerhouses. This is the list of Identity-related updates and fixes we saw for March 2024:   Windows Server 2016 We observed the following update for Windows Server 2016: KB5035855 March 12, 2024 The March 12, 2024, update for Windows Server 2016 (KB5035855), updating the OS build number to 14393.6796, is a monthly cumulative update. It does not incl ..read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute Entra Connect Sync v2.3.8.0, released on April 1st, 2024, comes with improvements in Entra Connect Health   What’s New Entra Connect Sync v2.3.8.0 offers a bug fix. Entra Connect Health v4.5.2466.0 Entra Connect Sync v2.3.8.0 includes an updated version of Entra Connect Health. With this version of Entra Connect Sync, Entra Connect Health has been updated to version 4.5.2466.0 to address an endpoint discovery issue that could occur in some clouds.   Version information Version 2.3.8.0 of Entra Connect Sync (previously known as Azure AD Connect Sync ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes Serious IT environments don't just have a test environment. They also have development, acceptance and/or production environments. For applications, having a development, test, acceptance (on-premises) and/or staging (typically cloud) implementation or instance seems common. For infrastructure, however, it is not. The availability, confidentiality and integrity of many Active Directory environments needlessly suffer because of this choice, but that is not the topic I want to discuss today. Today, in the context of World Backup Day 2024, I want to talk about the idea o ..read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Yesterday, Microsoft released versions 8.1.13.1 and 8.1.14.1 of its MFA Server product that allows organization to add multi-factor authentication to RADIUS-, AD FS-, IIS-based and other on-premises authentication scenarios.   Versions 8.1.13.1 and 8.1.14.1 MFA Server v8.1.13.1 is intended for  use on: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows Server 2016 MFA Server v8.1.14.1 is intended for  use on: Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022   What’s New The release notes mention the following changes: MFA Server versions 8.1.13.1 and 8 ..read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes When installing updates, there is always the risk of rogue updates; updates that break functionality, unannounced, unexpected and unsettling. Microsoft is currently researching such a possible side-effect with the March 12, 2024 updates on Active Directory Domain Controllers.   About the issue Domain Controllers may reboot unexpectedly and keep rebooting. Admins are reporting ballooning memory usage on the lsass.exe process. The Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) is responsible for enforcing the security policy on the system. It verifies users sign ..read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Last week, Raymond Comvalius and I presented at the first 2024 meetup of the Workplace Ninjas Netherlands (WPNinjasNL). While driving to the venue, I encountered Raymond in his variation of our favorite car: We arrived exactly on time to grab the last two parking spots at Pink Elephant's headquarters in Naarden, the Netherlands. We grabbed something to drink and enjoyed Bob Cornelissen's session on multi-cloud and hybrid monitoring with Azure Monitor, starting at 4 PM. At 5:05 PM, Remco Visser presented another 60-minute session on Microsoft Copilot for organizations ..read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes As a recently awarded Veeam Vanguard and Veeam User Group Leader, I'm proud to announce that I will be presenting at Veeam User Group Netherlands' virtual meeting on March 19th, 2024.   About the Veeam User Group Netherlands Maurice Kevenaar, Jos Maliepaard and I run the Veeam User Group (VUG) Netherlands Dutch. Our goal as the Dutch Veeam User Group is to offer a platform for partners and customers of Veeam in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). We are independent of Veeam, but officially recognized and promoted by Veeam. We share information on software rele ..read more